| | Professional Qualifications
Attorney of the High Court of South Africa (practising)
Attorney of the High Court of Namibia
Professional Associations
Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town
IUCN Environmental Law Commission
Environmental Law Association
International Association of Impact Assessors (South Africa) “Highly recommended” South African environmental lawyer (Practical Law Company, 2008)
Country experience
Angola, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Estonia, Germany, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, Surinam, Swaziland, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Zambia
Expertise and experience
Cormac is one of the most experienced environmental lawyers in Southern Africa and has an international reputation particularly for his pioneering work in proposing a new approach to law in his book “Wild Law”. He first practiced as a maritime lawyer in Durban before working as a commercial and tax lawyer in Luxembourg and London. Since 1993 he has practised as a specialist environmental lawyer and governance expert working for companies, non-governmental organisations and public sector organisations at the international, regional, national, provincial and local levels.
His skills include drafting contracts, legislation and international agreements; negotiation, advising clients, litigating, writing opinions and accessible reports and explanations of the law, analysing and strengthening governance frameworks (laws, policies and institutions), public speaking, training and teaching. He has a reputation for developing innovative solutions and in 2008 EnAct International became the first service company to win a special commendation for innovation in the Mail and Guardian “Greening the Future” awards.
Cormac has experience and expertise in many specialist fields including the laws relating to: air pollution control, land use planning and control, contaminated land, Earth jurisprudence, fresh water, the sea, integrated coastal management, environmental and heritage impact assessment, biological diversity and protected areas (including transboundary parks), aquaculture, fisheries, forestry, agriculture, pesticides, plant quarantine, mining and oil and gas exploitation, biosafety and genetically modified organisms, waste management, and enforcement.
He has led the drafting teams responsible for drafting: treaties (eg. the SADC Forests Protocol, the Lake Tanganyika Convention, and an Interim Agreement for the establishment of the Benguela Current Commision): the Integrated Coastal Management Bill in South Africa, provincial legislation (eg. a Waste Prevention and Management Bill for KwaZulu-Natal, an integrated land use planning, environment and heritage Bill in the Western Cape and a Land Use Management Bill for the North West Province); national legislation (eg. the environmental laws of Swaziland and Malta and draft wildlife legislation in Namibia), and local government bylaws and laws dealing with aquaculture, forestry, fisheries, pesticides, marine conservation and other issues in many other countries.
Selected publications
“Integrated Coastal Managment Law” Establishing and strengthening National Legal Frameworks for Integrated Coastal Management, FAO Legislative Study No. 93, Rome, 2006
Recent trends in monitoring, control and surveillance systems for capture fisheries, by P Flewelling; C Cullinan; R.P. Sautter and J.E Reynolds. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 415, Rome, FAO, 2002.
“Wild Law” Siberink, 2002 and Green Books, 2003.
"Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing" FAO, 2000, AGS Bulletin, No. 139.
"Land Ownership and Foreigners: A Comparative Analysis of Regulatory Approaches to the Acquisition and Use of Land by Foreigners." FAO Legal Papers Online, 1999.
Author of legal section of Integrated coastal area management and agriculture, forestry and fisheries. FAO Guidelines (N Scialabba (ed.) Environment and Natural Resource Service, FAO, Rome. 256p.
Legal and institutional aspects of integrated coastal area management in national legislation. FAO Legislative study, 1994 (118 pages). | |
